Attention! ATTENTION!

I just love attention. {smile}

And now that I have yours there’s something I’ve got to get off my chest. It’s been weighing on my heart and interfering with my head while I’m supposed to be building and painting and well if you’ve been anywhere on the internet lately I’m sure you’ve seen me or a handful of others whining about how Facebook is ruining our small (and not so small) businesses. Tech blogs, photo blogs, home improvement blogs, music blogs and lima bean blogs (dude, this is a thing) are clearly perturbed about changes The Zucks & Co recently rolled out limiting how we (folks with FB Pages) connect with you (folks who like those pages). You see, you may not realize this but you’re missing out on a whole lot of stuff those pages are posting.

Gasp! What did you think? We were already on holiday? No! We are posting away but all you’re hearing are *crickets*. Now, there is a whole lot of garbeldyguck that attempts to explain why this has happened using fancy words and equations but here’s the short and sweet reason – they want us to show them the money before they’ll show you the goods. And even then we have no guarantee.

And that’s totally okay! Facebook is a business, after all, and those kids guys who started and run it have families to feed too. Or video games to buy, whatever. The point is we (brands) shouldn’t expect a free lunch and honestly, I don’t think most small businesses and bloggers do. We just prefer transparency, honesty if you will. And you deserve that too. I mean, is it really asking too much that people (you) who express interest in what they (us) say actually receive that information?

No, I don’t think so either. So – what are we (me) going to do about it?

Well, some are talkers. Me, I’m a doer. I mean, that’s sorta how I got myself into this mess in the first place yes? Alright. I could post a link to my email list and ask you to ‘hop on it’ as über cool social media gurus suggest and you’d know every time I post something new. But let’s be real. I haven’t checked my own email account in about three weeks and I’m not sure I’d want to have to remember my password on the daily just to keep up with one measly blogger.

So, I have a better (fingers crossed) solution. Since we all know everyone (you, me, her, him, them) are on FB twenty-eight hours a day anyhow what if there was a place that you could click – any ole time you wanted to – and read, communicate, or just passively peruse (read: stalk) awesomeundo crap from the DIYers you used to be able to follow in your newsfeed?

Now, don’t laugh. I totally just whipped this group together 5 minutes ago. Before coffee. So like everything else in my shop it’s a work in progress. But, it could become a gem of a thing don’t you think? And I’ve got something else in mind to go along with the group. I’ll post an update as soon as it goes live.

I don’t know if this will be a success or colossal flop but it’s gotta be better than what you’re getting right now. Which – quite frankly – is the shaft.